It has been 6 months since I have blogged!  Wow, I have to say that went quickly!  I want to update you on how our trip back to Gembu went.  This trip was different than any other we have experienced before!

The airplane left Minneapolis around 10 on August 7.  We were on it and so were our 17 bags.  We arrived at JFK on time and our flight was delayed because of “technical difficulties”.  After we finally boarded the plane, we sat on the runway in the rain and thunder and lightening for another hour or more.  This made our plane about 3 1/2 hours late to Paris.  We missed the flight to Abuja because of this.  We stood in a line of passengers for 4 hours to re-schedule a flight and found out that we had two choices.  #1.  Board a plane the next morning, fly to London, then to Frankfurt, then to Abuja and get there around 2:55 on August 10  #2.   Take a direct flight from Paris in 2 days.  The airline would pay for one day, food for a day and a voucher for airport store and we would have to pay for one day, and we would get to Abuja around 3:45 on August 10.  We opted for #2 as we were already so tired!  What to do in Paris for a full day?  Hmmm, we have thought about staying for a day or two as we frequently have a lay-over when traveling between Minneapolis and Abuja but we have never done it because when we travel we want to get where we are going and are pretty focused about that.  We took a Uber to the Double-decker bus tour and toured Paris all day.  We stopped and had sandwiches at a fun restaurant and then in the afternoon had a cappucino and Tiramisu.  It was the most relaxed we have been for a long time.  Just us stuck in another country that has bathrooms and good coffee.  Merci God!

The next morning we caught the plane to Abuja, we had Peter waiting at the airport with an extra vehicle because we were supposed to have 17 large bags.  We went through and collected our baggage and only 5 made it so Peter left to go back to his new Uber job as he has retired from GECHAAN now.  Dan filed a claim and we were told that the rest would be here on Sunday (this was Friday and we were hoping to be back to Gembu by Satuday night).  We did our shopping for food items and other supplies as we are hoping not to have to travel to Abuja at all this year.  Sunday Dan and Taiwo went to pick up our bags at the airport and we received 9 more.  The others “should” arrive Tuesday they said.  So, what to do in Abuja for two more days? We got to visit with Anita and Hintiya, our very dear friends and with the Pastor in Nigeria that heads up The Timothy Initiative project in Nigeria, we also checked out an automatic brick making machine that is available to purchase in Nigeria.

Wednesday morning we left at 5:00 am and Taiwo and  Dan drove.  We arrived home at 7:30 pm.  It gets dark here around 6:30 so we only had about an hour in the dark.  The roads were mostly good for here and we were never so thankful to finally be at one of our homes!

We were greeted by Lady and Tramp and their 4 – 3 month old puppies!  The puppies are VERY large and I cannot wait to show you how adorable they are.  They are very big and I think they are going to be even bigger than Lady and Tramp are.

We unpacked our bags, distributed items to their appropriate places over the weekend and are ready to be back in the swing of things now we feel.

We were so surprised and excited to see how much our Staff has taken responsibility for while we were gone and how well things are going.  God is really blessing and we feel blessed to be a tiny part in it.

Please pray for us as we make plans for ministry for this coming year and for us to do EXACTLY what God wants us to do this coming year and the connections we made this past summer in regards to Agriculture and  medical equipment and technology.

My point for today is this:  Even when our agenda doesn’t happen, He is sooo good!

Signing off from Gembu for now ~ Tina